Our View: Thumbs up, thumbs down

Thumbs down to the FBI for improperly obtaining reporters' phone records. FBI head Robert Mueller recently apologized to top editors at The New York Times and The Washington Post, acknowledging it misued its powers through national security letters to access cell phone records of four journalists in 2004 who were stationed in Indonesia working on a story about Islamic terrorism.

But the apology didn't offer an explanation as to why the FBI felt it necessary to access the telephone records. The incident came to light, the Associated Press reported, through a review by the Justice Department's inspector general of bureau procedures that enabled the FBI to obtain thousands of records from phone companies after the Sept. 11 attacks. Because of possible First Amendment violations, requests for reporters' phone records are supposed to receive an even higher level scrutiny before they can be approved — but that didn't happen in this case. An FBI official said "safeguards are now in place that we believe would prevent this from recurring." That's not good enough.

We support the efforts of Sens. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Arlen Specter, R-Pa., the ranking members on the Senate Judiciary Committee, who have called for Congressional hearings about the FBI's phone records breach. Better yet, we urge the passage of a federal shield law for reporters that would provide greater protection for reporters. The bill passed the House easily last year, but Republicans blocked a vote in the Senate last month. The bill could resurface in the fall.

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Thumbs up to the Live Oak Unified School District's plan to offer a Punjabi language class at Live Oak High School. The class had been discontinued about five years ago, but efforts by Punjabi community members — knocking on doors and making announcements in temples to drum up interest among students — has resulted in the class resuming; about two dozen students signed up for language lessons.

The benefits are obvious: Not only will the class count toward the two-year foreign language requirement for University of California and California State University, but the students presumably will be able to communicate better within a community where Punjabi is a common language. "The class is something that meets the needs of our students and the board was very supportive," said Tom Pritchard, school district superintendent.

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Larry Montna was "awarded" a thumbs down last week for his unbecoming public outburst — "I'll rip your head off" — directed at a critic of the Sutter County Board of Supervisors. This week Montna earns a thumbs up for his very public apology; he presented Roberta Fletcher flowers at Tuesday's board meeting and said, "I'm sorry."

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Talk about "soul food." For more than 10 years, a band of volunteers has been helping to provide much-needed food to families in the Dobbins, Oregon House and Camptonville areas. The Dobbins-Oregon House Food Bank started in 1997 after the Williams fire to assist those who need a little extra help to get through each week. Initially, about 30 families took advantage of the assitance.

Today, about 85 to 90 families come weekly; about two-thirds of the clientele are seniors. And the numbers are growing as the sour economy hits home: over the last six months, 15 more families have begun picking up food. About 16 food bank volunteers put in about 140 hours of work a week over three days. The work includes picking up the donated food three times a week from the Food Bank in Grass Valley, an 85-mile round trip; sorting it; packing it; and handing it out on Thursday afternoons.

Why do they do it? "We have a lot of very needy people in our area," explained retired school teacher and volunteer Joe Gledhill in an Appeal-Democrat story last week. "This addition to their lives is important to them, so we've made it important to us."